🚀 Infrastructure as Code without Cloud? Yes, it’s possible!

houssam — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 20:26:33 +0000

Many think IaC (Infrastructure as Code) is only for AWS, Azure, or other cloud platforms.
But what if you don’t have access to public or private cloud resources?

I built a solution that lets you start with Terraform + Ansible using only VirtualBox locally:

🔹 Terraform → provisions the environment
🔹 Vagrant → manages VM lifecycle
🔹 VirtualBox → runs the virtual machine
🔹 Ansible (inside WSL) → configures the VM (installs & starts Nginx)
🔹 GitHub Actions → orchestrates the entire workflow (CI/CD style)

📌 The outcome:
✅ A fully automated VM setup (Ubuntu on VirtualBox)
✅ Nginx web server running & accessible
✅ Same IaC workflow as in the cloud — but on your local machine

This approach is perfect for learning, testing, and practicing DevOps pipelines without spending on cloud resources.

🎯 Project Objective

The goal is to automate the deployment of a local infrastructure (a VirtualBox VM) and configure it with Ansible to run Nginx — all orchestrated via IaC tools and CI/CD.

🛠 Tools Used

VirtualBox → virtualization software to host the VM
Vagrant → manages VM lifecycle in a simple workflow
Terraform → declaratively provisions infrastructure
Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) → runs Linux tools on Windows (needed for Ansible)
Ansible → configuration management & app deployment
GitHub Actions → CI/CD automation

⚙️ Setup & Installation

1. Install VirtualBox

Enable virtualization (Intel VT-x / AMD-V) in BIOS/UEFI.
Download VirtualBox and install it.
(Optional but recommended) Install the VirtualBox Extension Pack.
Verify by launching VirtualBox Manager.

2. Install Terraform

Download Terraform.
Extract terraform.exe to C:\terraform.
Add it to PATH.
Verify:

terraform version

3. Install Vagrant

Download Vagrant.
Install via the .msi file.
Restart your system.
Verify:

vagrant --version

4. Install WSL & Ansible

Enable WSL:

wsl --install

Install Ubuntu.
Inside Ubuntu:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y ansible

Or via pip:

sudo apt install -y python3-pip
pip3 install ansible

Verify:

ansible --version

🏗 Architecture & Workflow

The workflow is:

Terraform → triggers Vagrant
Vagrant → defines & creates the VM (on VirtualBox)
Ansible → configures the VM (installs Nginx)
GitHub Actions → automates the entire pipeline

🚦 Step-by-Step Execution

Phase 1: Create VM with Terraform + Vagrant

main.tf:

terraform {
  required_providers {
    vagrant = {
      source  = "bmatcuk/vagrant"
      version = ">= 4.0.0"
    }
  }

  required_version = ">= 1.5.0"
}

provider "vagrant" {}

resource "null_resource" "ubuntu_vm" {
  provisioner "local-exec" {
    command     = "vagrant up"
    working_dir = "C:/Users/HOUSSAM/Desktop/terraform-ansible-vbox"

  }
}

output "vagrant_info" {
  value = "Alles gut"
}

Vagrantfile:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/focal64"
  config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.56.10"
  config.vm.boot_timeout = 1200
end

Phase 2: Prepare Ansible Inventory

inventory.ini:

[ubuntu]
127.0.0.1 ansible_user=vagrant ansible_ssh_private_key_file=/mnt/c/Users/HOUSSAM/Desktop/terraform-ansible-vbox/.vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key ansible_ssh_extra_args='-o StrictHostKeyChecking=no'

Phase 3: Configure VM with Ansible

playbook.yml:

- hosts: ubuntu
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - name: Update apt cache
      apt: update_cache: yes

    - name: Install nginx
      apt: name=nginx state=present

    - name: Ensure nginx is running
      service: name=nginx state=started

Phase 4: Automate with GitHub Actions

Example workflow (.github/workflows/main.yml):

name: Terraform-Vagrant-Ansible

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  terraform:
    name: Terraform & Vagrant
    runs-on: self-hosted
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3  

      - name: Setup Terraform
        uses: hashicorp/setup-terraform@v2
        with:
          terraform_version: 1.5.7



      - name: Terraform Init
        run: C:\Terraform\terraform.exe init

      - name: Terraform Apply (run Vagrant)
        run: C:\Terraform\terraform.exe apply -auto-approve

      - name: Save inventory file
        run: |
          echo "[ubuntu]" > inventory.ini
          echo "127.0.0.1 ansible_user=vagrant ansible_ssh_private_key_file=$HOME/.vagrant.d/insecure_private_key" >> inventory.ini
        shell: pwsh 

      - name: Upload inventory artifact
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: inventory
          path: inventory.ini


  ansible:
    name: Run Ansible
    runs-on: self-hosted
    needs: terraform

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3

      - name: Download inventory
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: inventory

      - name: Fix private key permissions
        shell: pwsh
        run: |
             wsl --user root chmod 600 /mnt/c/Users/HOUSSAM/Desktop/terraform-ansible-vbox/.vagrant/machines/default/virtualbox/private_key 

      - name: Remove old SSH host key
        shell: pwsh
        run: |
            wsl --user root ssh-keygen -f "/root/.ssh/known_hosts" -R "[127.0.0.1]:2222"

      - name: Run Playbook
        shell: pwsh
        run: |
            wsl --user root ANSIBLE_HOST_KEY_CHECKING=False ansible-playbook -i /mnt/c/Users/HOUSSAM/Desktop/terraform-ansible-vbox/inventory.ini /mnt/c/Users/HOUSSAM/Desktop/terraform-ansible-vbox/playbook.yml

✅ Results

Ubuntu VM provisioned in VirtualBox
Nginx installed & running → accessible at http://192.168.56.10
End-to-end workflow fully automated via GitHub Actions
Reproducible setup — no cloud required 🚀

📌 Conclusion

This project shows how IaC concepts can be applied to local infrastructure with the same rigor used in cloud environments.

It’s a great way for DevOps engineers and learners to practice Terraform, Ansible, CI/CD, and automation pipelines without spending on cloud providers.

So , Thank you and I am here to answer your questions.
Houssam Naji

DEV Community: houssam